A trend began a number of years ago when few people were able to join their neighborhood health clubs, for one reason or another. Some found the yearly, monthly, or weekly dues too expensive. Others could not find the time in their schedule to attend regularly. Still others had no local health clubs to attend. With memberships on the decline, health fitness clubs began closing down as quickly as they had sprung up. These phenomenon, it is believed, are what led to the "home fitness" trend.
Home fitness devices include the infinite number of workout and aerobic tapes, as well as home gyms, rowing machines, walking simulators, skiing simulators, running simulators, stair stepping simulators, and more. Each of these devices are designed to work specific muscle groups, but more importantly to provide a cardiovascular workout at home. Naturally, it was but a short time before persons with these devices began taking them to the office, on vacation, on business trips, practically wherever they went.
Unfortunately, regardless of how small these exercising devices could be made by the designers and manufacturers, they would always be additional baggage for travelers to carry. The present invention solves this problem, as well as many others related to portable exercising equipment, and some problems related to travel in general.
With respect to the field of wheeled baggage devices, carriers are typically manufactured for a single purpose--toting baggage. Frequent travelers might forego the purchase of such a device merely because of its limited usefulness. This is not the case with the present invention. Its necessary sturdy construction makes itself applicable to a variety of tasks. While prior art devices are capable of being collapsed, folded, or compacted for convenient storage, the present invention--while it too can be easily compacted for storage--is capable of much more.
Both of the implicated industries, by misidentifying the difficulties that faced travelers, had created problems they were perhaps incapable of completely solving. Each separately focused on making their devices smaller, more compactable, and lightweight. This is evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,570,958 to Walker, 4,563,001 to Terauds, 4,426,099 to Gross, 4,371,160 Shooltz, 4,248,453 to Stark, 3,970,302 to McFee, 3,295,847 to Matt, Sr., 3,511,500 to Dunn, and 3,197,226 to Erlinder. Each of the devices in these references discloses either a portable exerciser, or a compactable luggage carrier. None of the known prior art devices has disclosed the combination of elements from each field to produce a more useful, dual operation device. The present invention is the first of its kind to pull the two seemingly unrelated fields together. It has served to bridge an expanse that might have otherwise existed for a longtime to come.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,758 to Lee, a multipurpose device is disclosed for use in connection with a bicycle. This device is not related to the present invention, especially in that the type of carrier involved is demonstrative of vehicle-type luggage carriers, not hand pushed wheeled carriers. Furthermore, as bicycles typically use these types of luggage carriers, the application of one field, vehicle luggage carriers, to the other, stationary bicycle exercise stands, is in no way indicative of the true difference between the two fields.
In another patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,167 to King, a multipurpose device is disclosed which converts from a chair to a baggage carrier. This baggage carrier is of the type considered relevant to the present invention. However, King's approach to find other utility features for a baggage carrier has taken a direction very different from that of the present invention. The King reference teaches conversion from a baggage carrier to a relaxation device, not a device for facilitating a cardiovascular workout, as in the present invention.
The present invention, in its various embodiments, recognizes and addresses the issues and problems involved in the two fields, and overcomes many limitations encountered by those skilled in the respective arts. Many devices and procedures have taught exercising techniques for home use, as well as travel. Likewise, many devices and procedures have taught the use of compactable baggage carriers. However, all of these teachings have failed to address both issues with a single device. This is not surprising, since the present invention is believed to be the first to have considered these previously unrelated fields. Other approaches, such as those of Lee and King, have combined the field of stationary bicycle stands with the field of vehicle luggage carriers, or the field of wheeled baggage carriers with the field of chairs. Until the present invention, no one had taken the approach of combining the field of wheeled baggage carriers with the field of portable exercising equipment, despite the long felt need for such combination, and the existence of the necessary implementing arts. Certainly problems such as toting bulky exercise equipment on trips, or stowing away useless baggage carriers between travels have existed, but such problems have gone unidentified by those skilled in the art. The recognition by the present inventor that the problems encountered in the two fields could be solved by crossing over the boundaries of these fields and combining basic elements from each lead to the present invention. While various aspects of the present invention have been known for some time, and while they may have been used in numerous other fields, those skilled in the relevant arts have failed to recognize their value as solutions in the present field. The prior art has shown a level of teaching away from the present invention by providing a wheeled baggage carrier in combination with a chair rather than combining the same with an exercising device. Rather than supplying an apparatus which affords only an incremental increase in performance and design over the prior art, the present invention utilizes a realization and understanding of certain desires of travelers, which were not previously considered, to achieve leaps in performance compared to the prior art.